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The unmistakable voice, striking good looks and eccentric personality 
and the complex inner life they cloaked: Turner Classic Movies (TCM)
sifts through the mystery behind one of Hollywood's most-respected and
celebrated practitioners of the art and craft of acting in BRANDO,
a 2007 two-part documentary which first aired on TCM in May. Piecing together
performances from throughout the decades with never-before-seen footage
and a series of original, in-depth interviews featuring not only a host
of his Hollywood peers but also family members and childhood friends,
TCM, along with The Greif Company (Steve McQueen: The Essence of
Cool), has worked to unmask the man behind the exceptional talent,
captivating persona and apathy (and frequent aversion) toward his
profession that was Marlon Brando.

The film investigates the challenges he faced in almost every personal
and working relationship throughout his life: the hatred toward his
hard-to-please, womanizing father and the sadness for his alcoholic
mother; the repeating pattern of determined pursuit of a woman who
interested him and, once he captured her heart, the inexplicable distance
and rejection that always followed; the disagreeable on-set behavior in
the 1960s that led almost every major studio and prominent filmmaker to
reject him until he staged a comeback with The Godfather (1972);
and the rift he caused with the Academy when he sent a representative to
reject his Best Actor win at the annual awards ceremony because of what
he considered Hollywood's persecution of Native Americans.

But even when controversy reigned, through it all, Brando's outstanding
talent and ability to mesmerize an audience was never questioned.
"Before Brando, actors acted. After Brando, they behaved," Michael
Winner, who directed him in The Nightcomers (1972) says in the
film. "That is the difference  an extraordinary effect on the history
of drama and the history of movies."

BRANDO highlights his performance in Broadway's Truckline Café,
which first gained him major recognition, and the phenomenon he later
created with A Streetcar Named Desire (1951) that put him over the
top. The film also explores the classical acting in Julius Caesar
(1953) that silenced his critics who labeled him a "mumbler," his
awe-inspiring work in The Godfather and what was arguably his most
intimate effort on screen in Last Tango in Paris (1972).

BRANDO, in addition to documenting his efforts on behalf of
Native-American causes, also studies his contributions to the Civil
Rights Movement and support for the Black Panthers. In his later years,
as he further lost interest in acting, his curiosity about other aspects
of life only increased. The film features his efforts to develop Tahiti,
including a tour of a school for marine biology he constructed that never
opened its doors, as well as some of his inventions.

Accompanying the two-night premiere will be a celebration of Brando's
work, including A Streetcar Named Desire; On the Waterfront
(1954), which earned him his first Oscar® for Best Actor; The
Missouri Breaks (1976); The Wild One (1953); Guys and
Dolls (1955); The Teahouse of the August Moon (1956); and
Sayonara (1957).